Month: December 2009

Audio/Visual: A Decade of Music in Film

the illusionist

Here we are, at the end of 2009. I’m recalling my top ten favorite film scores of the past decade and we’re down to the last two. Some of you may be under the impression that I prefer certain picks on my list more than others. This is not the case. I had a hard enough time picking out a slim ten so I didn’t even bother trying to prioritize them. I consider them all equally important and enjoyable. However, these next two are my last presented because they, out of the ten, are the most personal. By this I mean that I feel my own tastes are most strongly represented by these two soundtracks. Listen to them both and you will have the gist of what I love about music in film.
Let’s start with WE ARE THE STRANGE. If you’ve never seen this film (and likely you haven’t) I recommend you google/youtube it. However, truth be told, I don’t much expect many people will “get” the film right away. Much like KILL BILL, this film is a love letter to the creator’s influences. Like him, if you grew up on video games and Japanese animation, you’ll be delighted by its presentation of themes and imagery common to such fair. However, watch the film on a deeper and you’ll see that there’s more too it than just a love letter to the 8-bit era. There’s hints of Akira Kurosawa, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay, and a powerful brooding that brings to mind the eerie atmosphere of Dario Argento’s films.
And that’s just the film. The wonder of the soundtrack (created by a collective including the creator M Dot Strange, a Japanese violinist and several famous chiptune musicians. You can tell right away that there’s several spectrums of talent involved, as the score bounces from deathly string wailing to gleeful Nintendo carnage metamorphing into sheer electronic terror. This is one of the few films I chose whose soundtrack is immediately gripping; if you don’t notice it, you must be brain dead. That’s not to say that it overpowers the film; that’s impossible. Instead, it succeeds at being easily as powerful and innovative.
And there’s the core of why this is such an important soundtrack for me. The challenge of meeting the demands of the visual component must have been daunting. Variety describes the film as “a Freudian/spiritual/psycho-dramatic and high-tech catalog of visual imagery through the ages, as well as a plummet into the bramble patch of Strange’s soul.” That’s a very apt description. It’s impossible to imagine the sounds that should accompany such an insane head trip but imagine they did, and bring it to life with nary a flaw. To describe how striking, how fascinating the music is… like the film, it must be heard to be believed.
At the opposite end the spectrum is the music of THE ILLUSIONIST as composed by Philip Glass. When you think of a film score, this is what you think of; symphonic, sweeping, lush. In a word, cinematic. But it’s also a very subversive soundtrack that has the most rewarding repeat experience I’ve ever had with a soundtrack. And to me, that’s just as important as originality. It takes imagination to come up with something innovative and fresh but it takes talent to make people come back to it again and again. And Philip Glass does this with a godly omnipotence.
Glass is not known for his subtlety. Many describe his music a jokey cliche; Philip Glass walks into a bar Philip Glass walks into a bar Philip Glass walks into a bar. But that’s the beauty of the Glass style; unless you’re actually paying attention, it’s nothing but repetition. It doesn’t take much effort, but you actually do have to put away your thoughts and toys for a moment to capture the utter joy of Philip Glass’ work by absorbing the nuances within. And, like the best works of art, the more you immerse yourself in it, the more you’ll enjoy it. Like nature and life, it’s a cycle.
Now that you are prepared to comprehend and enjoy the music of THE ILLUSIONIST, let me tell you why you’ll enjoy it. The score to THE ILLUSIONIST is pure magic. By “magic”, I’m referring to the kind a magician, an illusionist would conjure. A mystery. It is a cat and mouse game played out in symphonic form. It’s noir, but it does away with the distracting features of traditional noir and distills it to the essentials. There’s wonder here and there, but it’s not a childlike, innocent wonder; it’s more awe and giddiness that prefaces the inevitable climbing spiral of spine-tingling suspense.
And really, that’s what enraptures me the most about this score; pure suspense. Build up. Each song is a small kind of lifeform; some begin as broad strokes, whirling and excited that inevitably pounce with brilliant majesty and glory. Others sway and shimmer seductively, gradually evolving into a gleaming, intense panorama replete with swelling banks of string, keening flutes, booming cellos, a whole ecosystem of grandiose sound. It’s an entirely different species of music whose appeal lies entirely outside of its manifestation; imagine a massive, aged, monolithic structure that towers above you darkly in the night, looming and great with dozens of stunning features that catch the eye and yet, as a whole, overwhelm the senses.
And that closes out my review of the top ten soundtracks of the past decade. I regret that I haven’t yet heard the music of what could be my favorite film of all time: THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR PARNASSUS. It could easily surpass any of these on my list, but I’m unwilling to experience it outside the film’s climes; to do so would seem cheating. So we’ll make do with this for now. I hope my blathering didn’t spoil your appetite for music in film too much, and here’s to another ten years of greatness.
Audio/Visual: A Decade of Music in Film is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Lawrence Poleski.

Indie Killer or how I learned to quit having high expectations for Sony Pictures Classics

If you look at Sony Pictures Classics track record in the last couple of years then you will realize the term “Indie Killer” is pretty fitting for them. Some of my favorite movies of the last 2 years have been essentially put on the back burner and not given the release they deserve. The same rings true for one of my favorite movies of the year, MOON. The only downside to this unfortunate fact is that MOON deserves to bring home some hardware during next years Academy Awards and it probably wont even see a nomination.

As I am typing this, MOON is not sitting pretty for the Oscars that it would most likely have been nominated for because Sony Pictures Classics decided to not send out screeners to the Academy voters. Sam Rockwell would have easily earned a nomination for Best Actor and Clint Mansell would have probably run away with the Best Original Score. Neither of these are going to happen unless a hell of a lot of voters step up and write them in without having received a screener recently. I was lucky enough to see this film at Sundance, where it premiered, then again at SXSW, and once more when it had its ridiculously short run in theaters.

The movie is fantastic and Rockwell brings the house down with his multiple performances. So if you are an Academy voter or you know one and you/they haven’t seen MOON then get in touch with Duncan Jones through EMAIL, his WEBSITE or his TWITTER. We need to keep up this grass roots campaign to get it recognized since SPC doesnt have the desire to help its run.

Check out this clip of Duncan Jones talking about Sam Rockwell’s performance and Oscar contention:

So for all of you that are wanting to help out…here is a FYC poster I made post it EVERYWHERE:

The Best Thing I’ve Seen All Year: Christopher Walken Flips Off the Law of Physics

Did I say of the year, because I meant of the decade.   That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, on December 31st, 2009, at 12:40PM Central Standard Time, I stumbled upon the best thing I’ve seen since I clicked the TV Power button on at 12:01 AM January 1st, 2000 and realized the world hadn’t ended.

The movie is called MCBAIN.   It is from 1991, and it was a time where Christopher Walken was kind of going through a lull in his career.   Of course, if you know enough about the man, you realize Walken doesn’t go through lulls.   There are just moments where has chosen not to turn the volume up to KICK-ASS level.

Nonetheless, whatever you think of his career at this time, when a gun found its way into his hands, the laws of physics ceased to exist.

Just watch the clip, and we’ll talk after:

Through one window, across roughly 20 feet of air whipping by at hundreds of miles per hour, through another window (of a United States jet, nonetheless), through a helmet, nothing but pilot skull.   Look carefully at the start of the clip, and you’ll also see Michael Ironside in the back of that plane.   What’s all this add up to?   Just the greatest thing that has come before my eyes in the past decade.   I can sleep now.

God bless, Christopher Walken and God bless his lack of acceptance for the nature of impossibility.

Audio/Visual: A Decade of Music in Film

a scanner darkly

It’s time to get the real party started. I’ve whittled down what I prefer to think of as the “critical darlings” of my top ten best scores of the past decade. From this point on, it’s all subjective. The next three scores are personal favorites that I feel are real standouts from the hordes of disappointingly functional soundtracks I’ve witnessed. Before I continue, let me clarify a few things. I chose these scores (and this is so for the previous picks) not just because they suited their respective films; this they did well. I am highlighting them because they are also, standalone, great music that isn’t content to merely assist the visual action. At times, these soundtracks may even overwhelm the film itself, though this is a rarity. I love them because it’s not until you hear them outside their natural habitat that you realize how phenomenal they are.
The score for Dave McKean’s MIRRORMASK is a great example of this. The first time I heard this score, I was mildly intrigued but I couldn’t figure out why it stood out, because so much of the film fought with it visually. If you’ve never seen MIRRORMASK, it’s a starkly rendered treat that isn’t quite CG but not at all an animated film so it’s no surprise that I had to sample the score on its own to grasp its appeal.
Like the movie, the soundtrack is a dark carnival of eccentric textures, though one particular facet is notable. Iain Ballamy, a close friend the director and cooperator of their shared record label, was brought on to compose, having worked in the past with David Bowie on a musical film. Much like LOST IN TRANSLATION, this is again an example of a director working closely with the composer, adding his own ideas to the mix and enhancing the accuracy of what is portrayed through the music.
What you get really is very unique. Ballamy, an immensely talented saxophone player, keeps traditional instruments in the forefront, bringing to bear only a few layers of sound and the occasional electronic trimmings. Consequently, the music is hauntingly minimalist; even the lighter pieces feel unsettled and spectral. What Ballamy wasn’t afraid to do is to really explore; the score traverses just about every landscape imaginable, from twisted whimsy to psychedelic ambiance transforming into a frenetic, percussion-driven rush. It must’ve been difficult to keep up with the film itself in terms of creativity and spectacle, and yet he churned out a distinctly brilliant gem that glitters darkly alongside the film itself, hidden but vivacious and keen.
To this day, I still don’t know what to make of the score for A SCANNER DARKLY. I’m not familiar at all with the composer, Graham Reynolds, or his Golden Arm Trio. They’re really about as enigmatic as it gets. Which is a crying shame, because this is a sucker punch of a score. While the MIRRORMASK music was subtle like a tight rope performer, A SCANNER DARKLY has a capably menacing atmosphere that never quite lets up. Much like Jonny Greenwood’s work with THERE WILL BE BLOOD, Reynolds utilizes a subtle blend of electronics and strings, but rather than screech with discordant dread, A SCANNER DARKLY chooses to shimmer with a glossy noir gloom that is really tantalizing.
What really sticks in my head about this score is how chilling it is. The blend of deep, bluesy noir, percussive electronics, and dramatic strings is dosed perfectly. They could’ve erred on the side of computerization and come out too inhuman, or they could’ve bent too far into the noir realm and risked undermining the warped, frantic transformations the film throws at the audience. Instead, there’s a perfect balance in place, resulting in a body of sound that I would describe as a late night stroll down the dark, rain-soaked memory lane of hacked and scrambled supercomputer. In other words, perfect future noir.
TAXIDERMIA is a film I’ve never seen. But I’ve listened to the score hundreds of times. I feel this score is one of the strongest of the entire set for that reason alone. I will admit that, having heard these soundtracks alongside their visual components influenced my take on them. That I have no doubt of. That I am so enamored of Amon Tobin’s work on TAXIDERMIA should indicate just how strongly I feel about this music. The fact is, out of all three of these, this score stands out the most, and while many fans of traditional film scores will scoff at it, I love it to death.
To begin with, its produced and composed by one Amon Tobin. Unlike the two other artists mentioned in this article, I am a fan of Amon Tobin. I discovered him via his excellent soundtrack for the Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory videogame, then became enamored of his whole discography. To discover that he scored a film was exciting enough. The fact that it’s a hypersurreal Hungarian body-horror flick that could make Cronenberg blink is a fact I find amusing at least.
What matters here is how very unique Amon Tobin’s style of scoring is. Tobin is the master of sampled percussion and he does not temper his taste for razor sharp beats here. What he does do is to take his eclecticism to a whole new level. Utilizing the expensive and precise studio setup he made his “Foley Room” album with, he drives a thousand microcosmic samples through a computer and produces a dark spectrum of murky, lurching, hallucinatory tunes throbbing with a rhythmic backbone of his flawless beat manipulation. The soundtrack includes one of the best songs of all time: “Here Comes The Moon Man”, a piece of music that is as alien as it gets.
And that wraps up the penultimate chapter of the top ten scores of the past decade. There’s only two more soundtracks to go. I won’t give away what they are just yet but I will hint for amusements sake. One of them is composed by a popular and critically praised composer yet is still a score often overlooked, one you likely have heard or have heard of. The other is the work of a single man producing his debut film by himself that premiered as Sundance to critical mockery despite being wholly original and stunningly rendered. Join me later today, just prior to the end of the year, as I announce the last two of the best film scores of 2000-2009.

RAPUNZEL Lets Down a First Look and Its Hair

I don’t want to give the impression that I’m fully let down by this first shot from RAPUNZEL brought to us today by disneypixar.fr.   It looks like perfectly fine, standard, 3D animation at its absolute adequacy.   What disappoints me is this notion that Disney has to create 3D animated films when they had a perfectly fine 2D animated film hit theaters just a short month ago.

PRINCESS AND THE FROG should have been the launching point of a whole new Disney venture into 2D animation, a re-visitation of the amazing period of time the company had from THE LITTLE MERMAID to THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME.   RAPUNZEL seems right up the alley with these other films.   It’s disappointing to see it get the same, almost stagnant, 3D delivery Disney gave to films like BOLT and MEET THE ROBINSONS.   It doesn’t help that the co-director of RAPUNZEL, Byron Howard, was also co-director on BOLT.   Nathan Greno, the other co-director on board this project, was head of story on BOLT.

Anywho, that’s my rant.   Here’s the picture in full, which comes from Studio CineLive magazine:

RAPUNZEL is set for release on November 24th, 2010.

THRILLER, DOG DAY, and MUPPETS Among 2009 National Film Registry Entries

The classic music video/short film for Michael Jackson’s THRILLER (directed by John Landis) was among 25 films selected Wednesday to be forever preserved by the Library of Congress.   Every December, films that have attained a certain level of historical importance are selected to be entered into the National Film Registry, and the list of this year’s inductees offers a few classics, something never done before, and even the Muppets.

Here’s the list:

  • DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975)
  • THE EXILES (1961)
  • HEROES ALL (1920)
  • HOT DOGS FOR GAUGUIN (1972)
  • THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957)
  • JEZEBEL (1938)
  • THE JUNGLE (1967)
  • THE LEAD SHOES (1949)
  • LITTLE NEMO (1911)
  • MABEL’S BLUNDER (1914)
  • THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940)
  • MRS. MINIVER (1942)
  • THE MUPPET MOVIE (1979)
  • ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968)
  • PILLOW TALK (1959)
  • PRECIOUS IMAGES (1986)
  • QUASI AT THE QUACKADERO (1975)
  • THE RED BOOK (1994)
  • THE REVENGE OF PANCHO VILLA (1930-36)
  • SCRATCH AND CROW (1995)
  • STARK LOVE (1927)
  • THE STORY OF G.I. JOE (1945)
  • A STUDY IN REDS (1932)
  • THRILLER (1983)
  • UNDER WESTERN STARS (1938)

The entry of THRILLER, arguably the most famous music video of all time, is a milestone in the histor of the National Film Registry’s annual induction.   It marks the first music video chosen for preservation by the Libary of Congress.

Steve Leggett, coordinator of the National Film Preservation Board, had this to say to MSNBC about the choice to include THRILLER:

Because of the way the recording industry is evolving and changing, we thought it would be good to go back to the development of an earlier seismic shift, which was the development of the music video.

The Librarian urges the public to make nominations for next year’s registry at the Film Board’s website (www.loc.gov/film).

2009 in Pictures

From the start, the 2009 forecast seemed a little CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, but when AMELIA took us flying UP IN THE AIR, past the blinding WHITEOUT,  we could see  A NEW MOON. A BRIGHT STAR rose above the horizon of the RED CLIFF and we found ourselves on THE ROAD to some PRECIOUS moments in film. Those INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS saved us from the claws of WOLVERINE…he even tried to DRAG ME TO HELL! The night WATCHMEN kept a close eye on us as we spent a second NIGHT IN THE MUSEUM,  saw  the DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS, and another ICE AGE.  We became ASTRO BOY, rocketed off  to PLANET 51, and witnessed the epic  MONSTERS vs. ALIENS battle.  Some were slyly  introduced to THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX,  many cheered  as both PONYO and CORALINE attempted to save  their families and the world, and we sailed with Max  “through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to  WHERE THE WILD  THINGS ARE.”

Once the 500 DAYS OF SUMMER ended, we escaped the vast  ZOMBIELAND of  the theaters, but how would we explain THE HANGOVER we had from the long STAR TREK past the MOON?  We were caught between THE INVENTION OF LYING and trapped inside THE HURT LOCKER.  In 2009, Johnny Depp and his gang were made PUBLIC ENEMIES and Russell Crowe  found himself  in a STATE OF PLAY. We liked that SHERLOCK HOLMES was not A SERIOUS MAN, but rejected that JENNIFER’S BODY was filled with  A CRAZY, INKHEART.  Holmes certainly would have found the  NINE clues in DISTRICT 9 including THE LOVELY BONES of  the doll 9.

We were scared by all THE PARANORMAL ACTIVITY at the box office  when The FALLEN sought his REVENGE as  TRANSFORMERS 2 became the top-grossing movie of 2009.  Hoping that he would think outside THE BOX, we saw no SALVATION from McG’s TERMINATOR and  KNOWING that 2012 would be the end of the world,  a plethora of FUNNY PEOPLE  went in droves to  another Emmerich apocalyptic film.  Sadly the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, gave us one last brilliant  performance and told the world THIS IS IT.

Once again, Clint Eastwood declared, “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul,” with his INVICTUS and this time, James Cameron became “king of  a brave new  world”  and amazed us with AVATAR. HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE crowned A YOUNG VICTORIA, COCO FOR CHANEL dressed A SINGLE MAN, JULIE & JULIA cooked UP a feast, and THE INFORMANT was needed to rat out BRUNO. On the gossip front, did I mention what happened between ME AND ORSON WELLES? No? Or DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS? Really? Neither did we.

With  many  A  CHRISTMAS CAROLing  finished and a new YEAR ONE around the corner,  AWAY WE GO with  a video from Zack Young  on “2009: At The Movies.” Love em or hate em, 2009 was certainly AN EDUCATION.

Source: ThompsonOnHollywood

EAGLE OF THE NINTH Shots = Sword and Sandals and Channing Tatum

It’s been hard, up until now, not to compare the careers (and acting styles, for the most part) of Channing Tatum and Sam Worthington.  They both broke onto the scene about the same time.  They both have that same amount of charisma (okay Worthington pushes ahead here and there).  They are both jettisoning themselves into any, big budget film role Hollywood has to offer.

However, looking at these new still of THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH, the new medieval Roman actioner directed by THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND helmer Kevin Macdonald, some comparisons to another actor may be in order.  Ladies and gentlemen, courtesy of Yahoo! Movies, I give you mid-Hulk transformation stills of Josh Hartnett (and one of Jamie Bell).

All kidding aside, this looks like it could either be truly epic or it could be another walk in the lazy, Roman park like what we have seen with films like THE LAST LEGION.  Kevin Macdonald didn’t exactly follow THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND up with a corker, and STATE OF PLAY wasn’t making him any new fans.  However, he could bring some level of expertise to this film’s execution.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH is set for release sometime in the fourth quarter of 2010.

EP4: Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them? (The Top 10’s of the Year)

On tonight’s episode of The Golden Briefcase, Tim and Jeremy discuss the new DVD/Bluray releases, the new trailers for INCEPTION and COP OUT, and rant about the bandwagon system.

The main topic of the night was the Top 10 Films of 2009! The guys talk through their personal lists and share commentary about some of this year’s best films!

Couldn’t make the live show? No worries. We have it all available at your disposal through iTunes or RSS! Just click the links to the right and get your dosage of GBC right to your favorite feedreader!

Live broadcasts are on Tuesday evenings at 6:30pm PST/9:30pm EST.

Send show topics, commentary, hate mail, love letters or whatever your heart desires to wamgpodcast@gmail.com! We would LOVE to hear from you!

This week, our show is sponsored by the kind folks at www.fright-rags.com! The BEST in original horror tee-shirts! They are offering Golden Briefcase listeners 10% off their orders using the promotional code: WAMG10. Check out the website for custom shirts featuring themes from new and old horror films alike!

If your company would like to sponsor The Golden Briefcase, please send us an email with something along those lines in the subject line!